We were on FIRE… literally
So there I was, in the middle of TWO marathons: one running, and one with the “Crackberry”, when Vanessa says “Steph, do you smell smoke?”. Without looking up, deeply engrossed in my crackberry marathon, I nodded…. Yup, definitely smell smoke…. Crackberry….
What brought me out of my trance? Vanessa yelling:
“SMOKE! STEPH, GET OUT OF THE [bleeping] RV NOW!!!”
not really realizing what she was yelling about until I saw her standing there, wide-eyed, clutching the fire extinguisher like a young babe she needed to escape from a burning house.
Yes folks, the RV was on fire.
So here’s what transpired:
- Billows of smoke seeping from under the hood
- Vanessa and I spring into action – me, towards the front of the RV to see what was going on (grabbing all the necessities, like the Crackberry)… and Vanessa sprinting the opposite direction towards the neighbours’ house, fire extinguisher in tow (my first thought was… “don’t you use the extinguisher to put the fire out?… I hope I saved my email…”)
- We get the help of a friendly New Brunswickian named Leigh, who promptly grabbed Vanessa’s baby (the extinguisher), ran back with us to the RV, which was now caked in smoke
- Leigh swings open the hood, only to see flames coming out of the engine (not a good sign… we prefer to be on fire in different ways….)
- Leigh briskly put the fire out with three shots from Vanessa’s baby… I mean of fire retardant. I was right behind him peering under the hood to get a close up of all the action wishing I’d remembered the camera! Vanessa… well… she was a safer distance away.
- About 20 minutes later, Matt comes running down the hill, completing his pull, and was promptly informed that yes, the RV had been on fire, everyone was OK, and…. how far will our insurance cover us for a tow?…
But this didn’t all come out of the middle of nowhere. For those of you who have been following us, our lovely E-RV has been in the shop a few times (ah good memories of Leduc, AB). We were hoping all had been rectified those thousands of miles back, but we’d been smelling a light scent of burning rubber for the last couple of days and had already booked the RV in Fredericton for a tune-up. Our time for getting it checked out came a bit early, about 3 days and 210km early.
So there we were, the three of us waiting on the side of the road, and in perfect Run for One Planet fashion, the heavens opened and rain came pouring down upon us as we spent the next 2 hours waiting for our tow.
Then along came an angel going by the name “Danny” who wasn’t just a tow truck driver – he is a true Tow Chauffeur, because for the next 2 hours of towing, he entertained us with his 35 years of tows-from-the-road stories, as well as a week-long cruise he’d just won with his wife.
Now folks, you have to remember, a 28 ft motor home cannot be towed by just any tow truck. Danny showed up in the mother of all tow trucks…. A semi-trailer tow truck. (Way to go Matt for getting the extra $65 add on with CAA. That would have been a big one…. about 700 big ones.)
On our way to Fredericton, not by the mode of transportation we’d expected, we arrived safe ‘n sound, just in time for the torrential rains and gusting wind to stop, into our new ‘camping spot’ for the next 3 days…. Wood Ford (an upgrade from the Walmart parking lot we’d camped out in the night before).
So stay tuned folks, the RV is supposed to be fixed Friday afternoon… we’ll keep you posted!
lol… Sorry to hear about the RV but I had a smile picturing the drama. Is that so wrong? I dunno… but you guys are rockin’. Keep up the great work in spreading the word! You’re inspirations to us all!
Comment by Sparky — Friday, September 19, 2008 @ 5:28 am